PJO reads The Lightning Thief
by Imabeliever97
Summary: Percy, Nico, Thalia, and Annabeth read TLT with the gods! I know it's been done but everyone just stops in the middle. I hope you ENJOY!
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! So, I know that this has been done before, but no one ever completes these! It really bothers me, so I decided that I'm gonna do it myself. I hope you enjoy :D And feedback is MUCH MUCH MUCH appreciated.

Oh, and unfortunately PJO does not belong to me :( all rights go to the almighty Rick Riorden.

BTW: I am horrible at starting stories so sorry if the beginning is kind of awkward

(extra sorry if everything is awkward)

This takes place after The Last Olypian

* * *

"Hello, come inside."

Chiron beckoned Percy, Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia inside the Big House.

"What's up?" Thalia questioned leaning against the wall.

"Well you see, I was recently contacted by the gods. They are, surprisingly, impressed with your heroic deeds these past few years and are inviting you to Olympus to read about these past events."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, confused.

"Well, I'll let the gods explain that to you, let's go!"

(At Olympus)

"Ahh, welcome young demigods" Zeus began,"I am sure you are a bit confused as to why you have been summoned here today. Apollo, will you please fill them in?"

"Of course. Well kids, we are going to take a little trip down memory lane. You see, a dear friend of ours, Mr. Rick Riorden has put all of your adventures in a few novels. We have decided that we should all read them together. Like a book club or something." Apollo stated.

"Umm, alright. I guess this could be interesting. We could look back at our old adventures and memories." Annabeth stated.

"Yup. Also, everything we read will be in Percy's perspective, which I'm sure will make this much more enjoyable!" Apollo said with a grin.

"Oh no" Percy groaned.

Apollo opened a book, "I'll start the first book **Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief."**

**Chapter One: I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher**

"What kind of chapter title is that?" Nico questioned.

"Oh, you'll see. It makes sense." Percy replied

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does?" Thalia stated.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.**

"Percy giving advice? That can't be good!" Annabeth joked receiving a playful punch from Percy.

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

The demigods all sighed, and earned pitiful looks from some gods.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages if you feel something stirring inside, stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"I wasn't warned." Nico said. Percy sent him a sheepish look.

**My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid? **

"Don't say anything!" Percy warned the now giggling demigods (and gods).

**Yeah. You could say that.I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan. Twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Boring" Poseidon stated just as Athena said "It's Fascinating!". They both glared at each other.

**I know it sounds like torture.**

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

Percy grinned at the mention of his trainer.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.**

**He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Don't tell me you still sleep in class Percy" Annabeth said giving her boyfriend a pointed look.

Percy looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Umm. . . Well you see, sometimes I get bored and then I may not have the energy to complete some assignments. . . um, yeah." He stuttered out. "At least I do more homework than Nico!

(BTW this is really OOC so after TLO Nico has started to go to school with Percy. Obviously different grades)

"Hey!"Nico protested. "I haven't gone to school in years! It's not my fault I have trouble getting used to it."

Hades sighed at his son. (yeah he has a throne at Olympus now) Well, it was his own fault that his son couldn't get a proper education. Oh well, training is more important than math.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"Of course" Poseidon groaned.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Aww, I wanted to hear more stories!" Apollo whined.

"Shut up". Artemis scolded.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"And it turned out so well." Percy said sarcastically

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Umm gross." Aphrodite stated. Everyone nodded in agreement.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Grover would love to know how highly you thought of him." Thalia snickered.

"I didn't know he was a satyr was and what he was capable of back then."Percy stated, pouting.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the , Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"I would help you!" Thalia exclaimed. The rest of the demigods nodded in agreement.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

The demigods in the room snorted. Comparing suspension to the life of a demigod was ridiculous.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Honestly Perce how dumb were you?" Thalia asked.

"Shut up! I didn't know about the gods back then and you know it!" Percy said glaring at her.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a ****_stele_****, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"No, that's Nico!" Ares laughed, but quickly shut up after the glare received by Hades and his "devil spawn".

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Oh I know the type." Hermes states, shivering slightly.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Way to be subtle Grover." Annabeth muttered to Herself, smiling.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the ****_stele_****, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the ****_stele_****. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

"Haha, this is is gonna be good" Nico snickered. Percy blushed.

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"God?!" Everyone in the room except for Percy exclaimed.

"I correct myself, wait for it!" Percy pouted.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself.**

"SEE!" Said Percy.

**"And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters**—**"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Yeah, no kidding." Poseidon scoffed.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Wow Perce, you summarized a HUGE war between the titans and the gods in a sentence." Thalia said shaking her head. Percy just looked down, a sheepish look adorning his face.

**Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Oh that's not fair" Annabeth exclaimed, "How is Percy supposed to know this? He doesn't even know the gods exist yet." Percy shot her a grateful look.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

_I wonder why_ Percy thought to himself sarcastically,

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach.**

The gods that had been through that all shuddered.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Oh yeah, really happy note." Hades grumbled.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Boys." Artemis rolled her eyes.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

Annabeth sighed. She had grown up with that look.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"Have you learned anything since then Percy?" Annabeth chuckled.

"Nah, I think everything just when through head" Thalia snickered.

"Too much seaweed in his brain"Nico said smirking.

"Good to know I gained such supportive friends." Percy grumbled.

Annabeth kissed Percy and a blush decorated his cheeks. Athena sent him a horrible glare.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"Well, it's either that, or die." Thalia sighed.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder**

**and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

Athena rolled her eyes.

**No he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the ****_stele_****, like he'd been at this girl's told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

"He probably had, do you remember who the statue was of?" Artemis asked.

"How am I supposed to remember that?" Percy questioned.

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Oh how naive I was back then" Percy stated shaking his head. He had thought that was a regular hurricane. Zeus, Hades and Poseidon looked at each other with slightly apologetic expressions. It had been awkward when they realized they were all tricked. Zeus then sent a glare at Ares, who, despite being the powerful and mean war god, cowered and shrunk into his throne.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with lunch tables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Don't worry Percy, you'll always be a loser freak to me" Thalia grinned.

"Gee thanks" Percy said sarcastically.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone in the throne room laughed.

"Oh grover." Annabeth chuckled.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"I love your mom" Nico stated. Mrs. Jackson made sure that Nico visited every few days. She would make him stay over so that she could make sure he was well fed and cared for. Percy smiled at him. His mom had really grown to care for Nico as well.

Poseidon smiled at the mention of Sally. He really missed her, she was truly a remarkable and incredible women. Perhaps he should go visit her soon. Although, having that Blowfish guy there won't be very appreciated.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends.**

Everybody groaned.

"This chick is seriously annoying!" Hermes whined.

**I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Gross. She needs some good qua lit makeup" Aphrodite exclaimed.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"And here is where things started going wrong." Percy groaned.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey "**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Why would you say that?" Nico and Hermes questioned.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

"Wow Grover, who is this lady?" Nico asked. Thalia also looked right, Percy thought, Nico and Thalia don't know what happened. Well this is going to interesting.

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Oooh how terrifying." Ares snickered.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?**

"Wait, Percy, you don't have a weapon!" Poseidon exclaimed.

"Don't worry Dad" Percy comforted, "You'll see what happens".

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. **

The other demigods frowned in agreement. They all knew what it was like, and they hated it. It made life so much harder than it already was for demigods.

**The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

_Nope, not at all_ Percy thought.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

Poseidon grimaced and closed his eyes. _It's ok, Percy's right here_ he assured himself.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll I'll try harder, ma'am."**

"Yeah I totally misinterpreted what she was talking about." Percy said shaking his head.

"No kidding." Annabeth agreed.

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"hahahaha" Everyone in the throne room burst in to laughter.

"Wow Percy, that's what you though?" Nico laughed.

"How was I supposed to know I was being accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt?" Percy asked.

"You were accused of what?!" Thalia and Nico exclaimed. "How did that happen?" Thalia asked, looking at Zeus.

"You'll find out soon" Percy smirked. He enjoyed having more knowledge than his cousins.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"It's a good book Percy" Annabeth said. "But your still not going to read it, are you?"

Percy shook his head.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"She's a fury!" Nico shouted in realization. "Alecto! If she's after you, you must be in some serious trouble Perce."

"Oh I am." Percy said.

"When isn't he in trouble?" Annabeth asked.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

Percy smiled at the mention of Riptide.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Poseidon sighed with relief. He got a weapon.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Seriously, she could stop with the 'honey' thing." Hermes said.

"I wish" Nico grumbled.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. ****_Hissss!_**** Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.**

"And that was the first time a monster was killed killed by yours truly." Percy said, grinning.

_That's my boy_ Poseidon thought to himself, smiling.

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Oh dear, the mist. You must have been so confused." Hestia said pitifully.

"It gets worse." Percy sighed.

**I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Nico asked.

"I was wondering the same thing." Percy remembered.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover isn't the best liar." Annabeth admitted.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"And that's the end of that little chappy!" Apollo cheered. "I'm going to get my neck massager before we start the next one, it's so stiff!" With that, he walked out.

The gods took this time to inspect their children. The three brothers were surprised at the positive relationships that their children had with each other. They argued so much that it was strange to see them get along so well. Zeus looked over at his daughter. She seemed really happy around the other demigods, and that warmed Zeus's heart. After all that she suffered, she deserved it.

Athena smiled at Annabeth. Since Annabeth was redesigning Olympus, they have seen each other so often. Athena was so proud of her daughter, now if only she'd stop dating Percy.

Hades was also watching his child. Seeing Nico happy and safe took a huge pile of guilt of Hades's chest. Yea, he may seem mean and heartless, but he cared about his son. Even if Nico didn't know it, Hades cared. Nico still looked a bit too thin and pale, but he was happy, and that was all Hades could ask for.

Poseidon motioned for Percy to come to him.

"Hey dad" Percy greeted. Poseidon smiled and they talked for a bit. Percy had turned into such a brave and honorable young man that Poseidon couldn't help but be proud. He was so happy that he could talk to Percy right now. Also, talking to him felt like talking to Sally.

"I'm back!" Apollo shouted walking into the throne room with a pink neck massager. "Let's continue shall we?"

* * *

Woohoo first chapter DONE! :D So what did ya think? Please send me feedback! Tell me if you like it, hate it, or if you don't care. I want you to be completely honest. Also, sorry if there were any grammar mistakes. I'm not the best when it comes to proper punctuation and stuff. Also, tell me if you have an ideas for the story, or if I made a mistake.

Actually, you can comment whatever you want, even if it's completely unrelated to anything. Just go ahead and let out whatever you want to say.

That's all darlings!


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you guys for reviewing and favoring this story! I'll reply to your questions and comments at the end, love you all :) Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own PJO nor do I own the characters. They all belong to the mighty Rick Riorden.

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"Ooh, I want to read this chapter!"Aphrodite called.

**"THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH"** She began.

"These chapter titles are really funny." Apollo commented.

"Yeah, but there is absolutely NOTHING funny about these ladies" Percy said gravely.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. She was pretty sure she new who these ladies were, and she wasn't to excited about reading about them.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"That must have sucked" Hermes stated.

Percy nodded, "It was, I thought I was going insane!"

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are a pyscho though" Thalia said.

"Gee thanks." Percy grumbled.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Of course Grover couldn't fool you" Annabeth said shaking her head fondly, "He can't lie to save his life!"

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something ****_had _****happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

Zeus and Poseidon looked down guiltily. Although they were too prideful to admit it, they knew the actions they took were rash and immature. They should have handled the situation more responsibly.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Athena resisted the urge to comment.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"Haha, that means 'old drunkard'. Well done Percy!" Hermes laughed.

Percy blushed, but he still felt slightly proud of his 12 year old self. Anyways, deserved it.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Aww Percy." All the girls smiled.

"What a wimp."Ares commented, receiving glares from Percy, Poseidon, and all the girls in the room.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Percy and Poseidon stiffened at the mention of Gabe. Annabeth put a comforting hand on Percy's shoulder, which he truly appreciated.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

**even if he was a little strange.**

Laughter of agreement filled the room at this comment.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"And all this time he was my protector" Percy said in amazement.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

Annabeth sighed, "Well, at least you studied for something seaweed brain."

Percy smiled sheepishly at her.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the ****_Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology _****across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. **

"How do you not know the difference!" Athena shouted in exasperation.

"I'm dyslexic! I know the difference, I just can't tell which word is which when it's written down!" Percy shouted back in defense.

A light blush or embarrassment decorated Athena's cheeks, "Oh right."

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. ****_I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

Percy looked down, he had become all too familiar to that look.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Aww Percy, that's so sweet." Annabeth cooed giving her boyfriend a hug.

_At least he has some respect for teachers_ Athena thought.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**_"..._** **worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"This won't be good." Nico muttered.

"Grover isn't doing a very good job of hiding this is he?" Thalia commented, "And how awkward is that? Hearing your friend talk about you with your teacher?"

"Oh it's very awkward." Percy confirmed, "I had never felt so confused before."

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Sure your not." Annabeth muttered.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"I'd listen no matter who it was, if someone's talking about you, you don't just walk away." Hermes stated.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the ****_school_****! Now that we know for sure, and ****_they _****know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— ****_"_**

_What is this deadline for? _Thalia and Nico wondered.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he ****_saw _****her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia and Annabeth looked down, sad expressions adorning their faces.

"Your a hero, grover." Annabeth said out loud.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Yeah, that would be kind of shocking to hear." Thalia said.

"You think?" Percy replied sarcastically.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

_It was an archer's bow_ Percy thought to himself shaking his head.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow ****_clop-clop-clop, _****like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"I kinda feel bad for Grover, having to take exams over and over again." Nico stated.

"Yeah, and he should be getting straight As since he taken the classes so many times, but for some reason that is not the cace." Annabeth said.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

"Nice save." Apollo commented.

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"That's a nice thought to go to bed with." Thalia said sarcastically.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. **

"He should have been more clear." Percy whined, "I felt horrible."

Annabeth nodded, "Yeah, but it's not like he could tell you what you were then, you were't ready."

"I'm not sure I was ready when I did find out." Percy remembered.

**Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"This chick is really weird." Apollo commented.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Aww Percy, it's ok." Hestia said, "That's not what Chiron meant, and he's really proud of you now."

"I know, but it still hurt then. I felt like I failed him." Percy replied sadly.

The other demigods gave Percy a sad smile, knowing that it must be horrible to feel like you've let Chiron down.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"Oh dear, he's not helping at all." Thalia said while face palming.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"Oh Percy" Annabeth sighed.

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were ****_rich _****juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

**"I wouldn't say I was a nobody" Poseidon exclaimed.**

A blush decorated Percy's cheeks, "Sorry, I didn't know back then".

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"Now instead you get to about monsters." Thalia said.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if that's better." Percy replied.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**"He did, and he wasn't good at hiding it." Annabeth said.**

"I guess he was a better actor and liar when he came to our school" Nico informed, "We didn't suspect a thing."

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Ha, you went straight for the gold didn't you Percy." Apollo stated.

"You probably gave him a heart attack just then." Thalia said laughing.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much ****_did _****you hear?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"He should just stop now." Thalia said groaning.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"You really are" Percy said rolling his eyes.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood_**

**_Keeper_**

**_Half-Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York_**

**_(800)_** **_009-0009_**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

"Nice save" Nico whistled.

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

"I wouldn't call it a mansion." Annabeth said smiling.

"It's better" Percy said.

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded.

"I know! I'm really sorry, but considering what happened with Mrs. Dodds, and Chiron and Grover talking about me, I was so upset and confused that I couldn't hold it in!" Percy grumbled.

"I get get it, I'm sorry" Annabeth replied giving Percy a small hug.

**It came out harsher than I meant it blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended ****_me._**

"When you put it that way, it does sound pretty messed up" Nico commented.

"Your telling me" Percy said in exasperation.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

_Something bad is going to happen now, isn't it_ Poseidon thought to himself.

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice****_. _****There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Oh god, the fates" Annabeth said quietly.

Percy put an arm around his girlfriend and pulled her closer, "It's ok" He assured her.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Thalia and Nico sat up, worried. They don't know what the fates were coming to Percy for.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"That was not the time Percy" Annabeth sighed.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that ****_snip _****across four lanes of traffic.**

"Percy! Who's lifeline was that?" Nico asked, worried.

Percy put a hand on Nico's shoulder, "It wasn't mine." That was the only answer he would give.

Nico and Thalia sat wondering who's lifeline was cut.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

Percy answered his own question, "So many things."

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

_They are worse_ Percy thought.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

Thalia looked down sadly. The other demigods and Zeus sent her sorry looks. Hades looked down feeling slightly guilty.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

_Oops_ Percy thought.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"What a lovely way to end a chapter!" Aphrodite said said sarcastically.

"It's probably going to keep on getting worse." Annabeth muttered bitterly, as she recalled what Percy would later get involved in.

"It's ok Annabeth" Percy assured her,"We are all here together right now, let's make the best of it."

"Your right" Annabeth said smiling.

"Alright guys, who's reading the next chapter?" Aphrodite asked.

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Yay! The 2nd chapter done! I don't usually update everyday, I just had a LOT of free time today since school was cancelled because of the hurricane(woohoo). So comment if you like it, dislike, have ideas for it or what ever. Ask questions, post some thing random or something. All comments are welcome!

Responses to comments:

murdax: Thanks! That's a good idea! I'll definitely put that in the story! :D

Lady Leaf8: Thank you! I was worried about the grammar. I promise I will update all the way, I hate it when people stop half way through! It's so disappointing :( I am definitely going to add in the future books. I just read Mark of Athena, and it was SO GOOD!

Thank you guys! I'll try to update soon! :D


	3. Chapter 3

Wow guys, I'm soooooo glad you like the story so far! I can't believe I'm uploading so soon, I truly have no life. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and I'll respond to your comments at the bottom :D

Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing PJO story or characters :( All rights go to the amazing Rick Riorden.

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**GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

"Excuse me, what?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, I was quite shocked as well." Percy said, "Not exactly the way I would like to learn my friend wasn't a normal human."

Nico laughed, "Yeah I remember when I found out about Grover!"

"Oh yeah, me too!" Thalia chuckled.

"Are you done?" Athena asked slightly irritated. Then she continued without waiting for a response.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"I know, that was the wrong thing to do" Percy said cutting off half the people in the throne room.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

Thalia shivered at the memory. "Percy, after realizing that something was wrong, why wouldn't you stay and find out instead of ditching him?" Thalia questioned.

"I don't know, I was tired and annoyed. I just wanted to go home to my mom." Percy sighed.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

"Of course you did. That was a stupid move." Athena remarked. Artemis nodded in agreement.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,**

"Agreed" Everyone who knew Sally nodded.

**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

Everyone frowned. This was an extremely true statement, and it hurt because it reminded the demigods about all the friends they lost during the past war. The gods were also saddened when they thought about the children they lost.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Poseidon and Percy smiled.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because ****_it _****makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

"I'm sorry Percy." Poseidon apologized.

Percy smiled, "That's ok, it's all ok now." Percy was really grateful for all the things that his father did for him these past years.

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

Poseidon sighed.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Oh tell me about it." Annabeth said.

"Hey!" Percy whined, "I'm not that bad."

Thalia chuckled, "Umm, you kind of are bro." Nico laughed in agreement.

"I still love you though seaweed brain" Annabeth smiled. Athena frowned and decided this was a good time to start reading the chapter again.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,**

**then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Everyone cringed at that description. Poseidon and Percy frowned. Percy clenched his fists, he was pretty sure he remembered what was about to happen next.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"Excuse me?!"Poseidon shouted, "How dare you talk to my son that way!"

"Calm down brother" Zeus said, trying to keep the throne room from flooding.

Percy looked at his father, "Don't worry Dad, we're happy now. Also, mom took care of the whole Gabe problem quite fantastically"

Everyone was curious towards what Sally Jackson had done to get rid of Gabe.

**That was it. No ****_Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?_**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose, "Someone is in desperate need of a SUPER EXTREME makeover, and it's not just Hephaestus."

"I hate you" Hephaestus grunted.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"Poseidon, stop." Athena said, seeing that the sea god was getting up. "Sit down and count back from 20, you need to learn how to control your temper!"

Poseidon glared at her, but sat back down.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I ****_right_****?****_" _****Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Everyone gagged.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Someone's got sass" Apollo commented. "That's good."

Percy just blushed.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Why did your mom marry this horrible man?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah I was wondering that as well" Nico added.

Percy sighed, "You'll probably find out soon."

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,**

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"Dang, that's one nasty smell if it beats those events out!" Hermes observed.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him.**

"Now your feel guilty" Annabeth commented shaking her head.

**A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

Poseidon let out a relieved breath that he didn't know he was holding.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"Aww" All the girls cooed. Even Athena sent Percy a small smile.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

_She is perfect_ Poseidon thought to himself, smiling.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"You have the perfect mom, Percy" Thalia stated. She could't help but feel a little jealous of him

Sensing this, Percy put a hand on Thalia's shoulder, "You know, she thinks of you as a daughter, right?"

Thalia sent Percy a grateful smile.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

Poseidon and Percy glared at the ground.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

_Even I don't deserve someone as wonderful as Sally_ Poseidon thought.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

'Awws' filled the room.

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No, she would understand, and find a way to help you!" Percy shouted at his book self.

"Your talking to a book Percy. . . " Annabeth stated.

Percy shrunk down into his seat, trying to avoid all the strange looks he was receiving.

_What does Annabeth see in this boy?_ Athena thought shaking her head.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"I wonder why we didn't have enough money." Percy said sarcastically.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him,**

"DO IT!" Apollo shouted.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "This is why I'm known as the smarter twin".

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"How tragic" Aphrodite stated. This earned her many, 'Are you kidding me?' looks from the rest of the people in the throne room.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everyone laughed.

"You should have done it!" Hermes said chuckling.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"What an idiot" Athena and Annabeth said at the same time.

"Freaky" Hermes commented.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

_That's because it was the same fear Grover had_ Percy scolded himself.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Hahaha!" Percy laughed remembering what ended up happening to Gabe's precious car.

"Now I really want to know what happens" Nico said excitedly.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Jerk" Hermes commented.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Haha, well done my boy!" Poseidon chuckled as everyone in the throne room burst into laughter.

Percy laughed, "Thanks, but I didn't know I had done that." He may not have known it was him then, but Percy felt plenty proud of his actions now.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Athena and Annabeth winced at the thought of the spiders.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

"Me too" Poseidon commented, remembering the time he spent with Sally there.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Poseidon smiled at the memory.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"You and your blue food obsession seaweed brain" Annabeth said shaking her head fondly.

Nico and Thalia raised their eyebrows in confusion and curiosity.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Yup" Thalia agreed.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Oh yeah" Percy proudly remarked.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her** **parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"Is she writing them now?" Annabeth asked.

Percy nodded, "Yup, and she's getting plenty of help from Paul."

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

Poseidon sighed, but he was glad that he and Percy had come a long way since then.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"You have his arrogance and stupidity as well." Athena added. Poseidon and Percy sent death glares at her, which she casually ignored.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"I'm very proud" Poseidon assured. Percy blushed, but still felt immensely pleased that he had made his father proud.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Don't put yourself down Perce, your not that bad" Nico commented.

Percy laughed, "Thanks bro".

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

Poseidon grimaced. He hated that time where he couldn't visit Percy and Sally.

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

I felt a sliver of jealousy. Why had my mother never come to visit me?

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

"You weren't wrong Percy, I was always watching over you." Poseidon confirmed.

Percy smiled, "I know".

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"I'm sorry, I know it wasn't your fault." Percy said to his father.

Poseidon shook his head, "It partially was."

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Percy!" Several people gasped.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"You better have" Thalia muttered.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I ****_have _****to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

"Haha, ouch" Apollo commented unhelpfully, earning a dirty look from Artemis.

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Nope" Thalia commented, "Your actually half god"

"Thank you Thalia." Percy said sarcastically.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"The truth" Percy said answering himself. The other demigods nodded in understandment.

The parents of the gods looked at their children with sadness, thinking about all the dangers their kids have to face.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head. Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"That's impressive for a little kid" Hermes said in awe.

"Thanks" Percy replied proudly.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

"it sucks when you see all these things, but don't understand if if your just hallucinating or something." Nico commented, remembering his childhood before he learned that he was a demigod.

The other demigods nodded in agreements. The gods just sighed sadly.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

_I should've told her_ Percy thought.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"More like a home than a summer camp" Percy commented fondly, thinking of camp halfblood.

All the demigods smiled thinking of their lovely camp. Even Nico, who had starting visiting camp more frequently, smiled in remembrance.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"It amazes me how clueless I was back then." Percy said in amazement.

"It amazes me how clueless you still are." Thalia said laughing. Percy punched her arm playfully.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"The first of many" Percy groaned.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

Zeus and Poseidon grimaced, understanding where this was going.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Wait a minuit, are those two. . .?"

"Yup Thalia, Poseidon and Zeus" Artemis said looking at the two brothers distastefully.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, ****_No!_**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. **

"It does when when gods get angry" Thalia said looking at the gods responsible.

**But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"That must have been really shocking." Nico commented.

"I thought I was hallucinating or something." Percy replied nodding his head.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"So many things" Annabeth said disapprovingly.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**_"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" _****he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you ****_tell _****her?"**

"No, I was too stupid." Percy said shaking his head.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

Everyone laughed, thinking about how awkward the situation must have been.

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: ****_"Percy. _****Tell me ****_now_****!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. ****_Go_****!****_"_**

"I was so confused at the fact that my mom was questioning and yelling at me, when my friend's legs were slightly too harry to be human." Percy said thoughtfully.

"That's because she knew that he was a satyr already" Annabeth stated.

Percy rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know that now."

**Grover ran for the Camaro**

**but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

Athena out the book down on her lap, "End of the chapter."

"What a confusing time that was" Percy commented. He was almost ready to check himself into an insane asylum at that time.

"So who's going to read next?"

* * *

Done! Sorry this chapter ended so awkwardly. . . I wasn't sure how i should conclude it. Anyways, the power was out since yesterday because of Hurricane Sandy and it finally came back! At least I had this story to distract me from the lack of wifi :D

Ok, so please leave a comment saying if you like/dislike the story. Or just comment something random or unimportant, it does;t matter.

Here are replies to your lovely comments:

**charisma26- **I'm glad you like it! I'll definitely finish it :)

**bat fan1987- **Here you go:) I'm sorry if this is not how you wanted Athena portrayed!

**blue and silver marble unicorn- **thanks! I like pie too, especially mango pie:)

**snyderk161- **Thank you! Yeah, I'm so glad I get to miss all this school! :)

**Lady Leaf8- **I think I understand what your saying. The reactions are kind of difficult, although for the first two books Nico and Thalia are going to be getting quite a few surprises! Hopefully you guys like the reactions I give to the characters, even though they already know what happened! I can't wait for House of Hades either! Rick Riorden is definitely keeping us waiting on purpose! Anyways, I'm glad you like the story, I promise to update soon!

**Getsugan- **I promise I will :)

Ok guys, I probably won't update tomorrow since it's my birthday but I will soon.

Love ya :D


	4. Chapter 4

****Hey guys! Did you enjoy your days off?

All questions/comments will be answered at the bottom :)

Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own PJO or the characters, all rights belong to the godly Rick Riorden.

* * *

"I want to read next! Pick me!" Hermes yelled childishly.

Athena handed him the book, looking at him strangely.

Hermes cleared his throat and began reading:

**MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING**

"Excuse me, what did Sally do?" Poseidon asked worriedly.

Percy looked up sadly, "It was all ok in the end dad, you know she is fine know." Percy assured his father.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

"Haha! Shag carpets?" Nico laughed.

Thalia snickered, "Oh Grover would love to hear that".

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"I wonder why that was" Annabeth commented sarcastically.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"That felt really awkward." Percy thought out loud.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

"That doesn't seem stalkerish at all" Apollo laughed.

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I **_**am **_**your friend."**

_I know_ Percy thought smiling to himself.

**"Urn ... what **_**are **_**you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

Laughter filled the throne room.

Thalia fell out of her chair, "A donkey Percy? Someone needs to write all these things down to show Grover later!"

Percy looked down, slightly embarrassed.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty **_**"Blaa-ha-ha!"**_

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a **_**goat **_**from the waist down."**

"And here I thought it didn't matter" Thalia said still laughing.

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Weird" Annabeth said referring to Percy and Thalia's similar comments.

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"I don't think Grover would appreciate you calling him a myth Percy" Annabeth stated.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a **_**myth, **_**Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you **_**admit **_**there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Your worried about _that_ when all this is going on at the moment?!" Athena asked shaking her head.

"Hey! Learning that there actually _was_ a was the only thing keeping me from thinking I was a complete lunatic!" Percy said defending himself.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

"Grover isn't really good at explaining these things is he?" Annabeth stated.

Percy shook his head, "Nope, I think I was even more confused after he said that.

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Poseidon glared at Hades, who at least had the decency to look ashamed.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

The demigods smiled, in recognition of the sign.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Wow Percy, you really have a thick head" Thalia commented shaking her head.

Percy stuck his tongue out at her childishly.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

"Way to scare him" Annabeth said shaking her head.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"Was he really that sure that I was going to die?" Percy asked.

Annabeth looked up at him, "No, I think he was just remembering what happened with Thalia, and his paranoia caused him to think that something will go wrong again" she stated.

Percy nodded his head in understanding.

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in **_**me.**_**"**

**"I meant **_**you, **_**like 'someone.' Not you, **_**you.**_**"**

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

Everyone laughed.

"This is why I don't work with boys" Thalia stated. Earning glares from the boys in the room, but looks of understanding from the girls. Especially from Artemis, who glanced at her brother distastefully.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

Percy sighed, he knew what part was coming up, and that was NOT a good time.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

"No one would give me a proper straight answer" Percy groaned.

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Yeah I'm not that lucky"Percy sighed. He was sent sympathetic looks.

**I didn't know where **_**there **_**was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really **_**hadn't **_**been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

Percy looked down, that was the point where he had accepted that all this myth stuff may be real.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. **

Poseidon felt panic rise in his chest, Percy didn't have the sword. How did he survive?

**Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling **_**boom!, **_**and our car exploded.**

"20 19 18 17" Poseidon started counting down, trying to calm himself down.

Athena looked at him, shocked that he was using the advice she had given him earlier.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. **

Thalia's eyes widened with worry.

**I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

Everyone smiled at this comment.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

_Oh gods_ Poseidon thought.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"That's me" Thalia said trying to relieve tension. All she got was looks of sympathy.

**_"What?"_**

"Gods Percy, do you have to question everything?" Hephaestus asked annoyed.

Percy looked away sheepishly.

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

Everyone looked at Percy and Poseidon sadly.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You **_**are **_**coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand and gave it a little squeeze. Percy smiled sadly at her.

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us,**

"The man with the blanket over his head? Really Percy?" Nico asked.

"I don't have night vision Nico." Percy grumbled.

**making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he **_**couldn't **_**be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

_Oh dear_ Poseidon thought _Here it comes_

**"He doesn't want **_**us**_**," my mother told me. "He wants **_**you. **_**Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

Poseidon looked down, pained.

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

"Your loyalty can get you serious trouble" Athena stated.

Percy sent her a glare.

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

Grover's title relieved tension in the throne room as people giggled.

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

Percy sighed, knowing there was nothing he could have done to help his mom at that point. His 12 year old self was too stubborn and naive to understand that.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of **_**Muscle Man **_**magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear**

Several people laughed at the picture.

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny,**

Everyone started laughing now.

**except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"Yes it could" Percy commented shaking his head.

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

"Don't say it" Several people warned.

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

Percy looked down, sheepish.

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"He doesn't have proper eyesight or hearing because-"

"Yeah I know all that now" Percy said, cutting Annabeth off.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

"Oh Grover" Thalia said shaking her head.

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

"So much for 'not a scratch'" Thalia said remembering what Gabe had said.

_**Not a scratch, **_**I remembered Gabe saying.**

Annabeth smiled at the similarity between the two cousin's thoughts. Thalia frowned.

**Oops.**

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

Athena nodded in approval of Sally's plan.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"It wasn't your fault" Percy said firmly.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Poseidon face palmed.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

Percy wrinkled his nose in memory.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

Poseidon started to count down again.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

"Good job Percy." Annabeth stated. Percy wasn't sure if she was making fun of him or being serious, so he just stayed quiet.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eying my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

Poseidon and Percy looked pained, everyone else was also grimacing.

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"NO!" Several people shouted.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

Thalia and Nico gasped. "What?!" Nico shouted.

"How is she alive now!?" Thalia gasped.

Percy looked up in realization, "Oh right, you guys were both MIA at the time" Percy remembered. "Don't worry, everything sort of works out in the end."

Thalia and Nico nodded, feeling slightly lost, and also slightly annoyed that no one would just tell them what happens.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

"Oh he's mad now" Hermes commented.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"We need to work on your name calling Percy" Apollo sighed, a disappointed look on his face.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"What?" Poseidon paled.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"Nice" Hermes commented.

Percy smiled, proud.

**How did I do that?**

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Poseidon paled again.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

Annabeth smiled, proud that he had understood that.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

Everyone was annoyed at Grovers antics by now.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—**_**snap!**_

"It just snapped off?" Nico asked.

Percy nodded, "Yup, it was kind of gross actually."

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. **

Several people winced.

**When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

_Who says you shouldn't act on your impulses?_ Percy thought.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

"That's really impressive Percy." Nico stated in awe. Several people nodded in agreement.

Percy blushed at the complement.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house.**

Percy looked down, trying to avoid the looks of pity being sent his way.

**I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

Annabeth hugged Percy, she hated that she wasn't there then to help him.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Annabeth and Chiron" Nico realized.

"He thinks your pretty Annabeth" Thalia smirked.

Annabeth and Percy both blushed.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"Aww Annabeth, you knew he was the one since that moment?" Thalia continued teasing.

Annabeth's blush deepened, "You all know that's not what I meant!"

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"And that's the end of the chapter!" Hermes concluded.

"That was quite the emotional roller coaster wasn't it?" Annabeth commented.

Thalia sighed, "I missed a lot didn't I?" Annabeth hugged her, "It's all good Thalia, your back now."

Nico smiled, "Yup, and now we get to read all of Percy's embarrassing thoughts, and learn about all the times he made a fool of himself when we weren't there!" He said grinning.

Percy groaned, not looking forward to the teasing.

* * *

Yay! The end of another lovely chapter!. Remember to leave comments, questions, critiques, and random stuff in the reviews! Oh, if you know any good jokes, leave them in the review section as well, I love jokes!

Responses:

snyderk161: Lucky you! I wish a had a generated! My neighbors did and I was so jelly :P

charisma26: I'm glad you like it! Thanks for the birthday wish :) I'm really excited for House of Hades! I'm hoping there will be more Nico in this book (He's my favorite)

General E: Thanks for the birthday wish :D

Love you guys! I'll try to update soon 3


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, long time no see! Alright, I know you all hate me, and I know I promised I would't leave you all hanging. I am SO sorry. I just went through a lot of stuff and became the laziest person in world. I literally did nothing but eat and sleep and go on tumblr. My grades dropped and overall I was really unhappy. I'm back on track now and I hope writing this story will keep me motivated and occupied. If you want me to continue, just leave a message! I hope you all don't hate me for breaking my promise!

I'll update soon I promise!


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